American Psycho: The Internet Icarus

[Abishai100]

An American stockbroker named Stuart, a graduate of Dartmouth College, was working in Manhattan and generally enjoying his successful life. One night he met a woman in a NYC nightclub and asked her, "Why is your hair dyed partially red?" to which she replied, "I want men to think that blood is on my brain." When he asked her why, she told him that she was morbidly frustrated with male behaviors (i.e., fraternity rapes, suburban adultery, etc.).

Stuart thought this woman was strange but what he told her started to affect him. He began reading the social sarcasm novel "American Psycho" (Bret Easton Ellis) and decided that NYC was a sewer of pedestrian corruption. Stuart remembered his childhood --- his estranged parents, his drug-abusing older sister --- and something in him snapped. He decided he would be some kind of anti-hero of the city.

Stuart started reading articles and editorials about Internet mail-order-brides who moved to the USA (mostly from Eastern Europe) seeking a convenient American marriage which would afford them beneficial residency permits/visas in cosmopolitan cities such as San Francisco and New York. He also began investigating reports of men seeking to meet women and mail-order-brides on the Internet under false pretenses and committing shocking murders. 'What were these men trying to prove(?),' Stuart wondered.

Stuart reasoned to himself that no one really cared about what was happening to these female victims who were otherwise harmlessly (and innocently) seeking male companionship on the Internet. Stuart was a big fan of Batman (DC Comics) comic books, so he posited himself this question: "Should I become a vigilante or Jack the Ripper?" Stuart told himself that if he became like Batman, he would put a stake in society's apathetic heart by pursuing these Internet stalking men. He also told himself that he became a maniac like Scarecrow (a nemesis of Batman), he would shock people into forcing to deal with these new age Internet-related urban crimes.

Stuart decided to post himself on the Internet as a fake courtesan named John Grace, with an assumed employment record and social status. He would arrange meetings with European and American women at major hotels and strangle them to death. He then put on a sack-cloth mask and posted on the Internet, "My name is Scarecrow, and I intend to warn Americans of the new threat of Internet date-related crimes." Stuart decided that as Scarecrow, he had become a modern AntiChrist, a real prophet, and he was satisfied.

Stuart went back to the nightclub where he met the woman with red hair dye who had inspired all of this in him in the first place. Perhaps he would find her there, he thought, and he did. He walked up to her (having now committed over a dozen murders) and bluntly told her, "I've been investigating Internet date-related crimes in major American cities --- you know, men meeting women for relationships or marriages (some of them mail-order-brides) and then killing them." The woman smiled and asked her, "What did you learn?" to which Stuart replied, "I hope something like that never happens to someone like you."





Internet Crime Complaint Center

 

[Abishai100]

The Immigration Stalker: A Reversal Omen


Here's the same story theme re-presented in the format of an immigration-related stalker. The preserved theme here is general 'traffic paranoia' in the modern world of networking-related sophistication.


====
Stuart was a true American psychopath. He would dig up the bodies of recently deceased people from graves and cut their skin off to make masks for himself. Stuart called himself Leatherface and his intention was to hunt and murder illegal immigrants.

Stuart lived in Texas, Florida, San Diego, and Washington --- areas in which the immigration rate and/or traffic was high. He would put on his eerie costume for Halloween and carry a chainsaw and prowl the streets at night, searching for vagrants who seemed to be illegal immigrants.

Stuart murdered over fifty people in the course of just six years. After his tenth victim, he simply stopped caring about whether his targets were illegal immigrants or not. If they simply 'appeared' to be illegal immigrants, he felt his bloodlust was justified and his identity as Leatherface was achieved.

Everything was going Stuart's way until an undercover detective named John Slade who was on the trail of Stuart's bloody path disguised himself as an illegal immigrant from Canada and crossed paths with Stuart (who was dressed as Leatherface) for Halloween 2010. Slade asked Stuart, "You must be wondering if I'm an illegal immigrant, since I look like a vagrant here in Washington," to which Stuart replied, "Yes, I was. I was wondering if you wanted to smoke this marijuana cigarette with me in the alley, since you look troubled this Halloween."

Slade accepted Stuart's offer and asked him, "Why are you carrying a chainsaw and wearing a mask seemingly resembling human skin?" to which Stuart replied, "This costume is meant to signify my paranoia about crime in America." As Slade and Stuart walked deeper and deeper into the alley, Stuart turned his chainsaw on, and Slade quickly pulled out his hidden revolver and shot him in the chest. Stuart fell and his chainsaw fell out of his hand.

Slade stood over the fallen body of Stuart. Slade asked the fallen American psycho, "Why were you stalking illegal immigrants? I know it was you who was responsible for over fifty murders. Why did you do it?" Stuart replied coldly with his last breath, "Immigration scares me so much that I would rather destroy any American idealism surrounding it. I consider myself to be the real Devil's Advocate."

====

 

[Abishai100]

The Facebook Guardian


Here's another story with the same theme of Internet/network-related psychological complication. The purpose of these stories is to suggest that modern technology creates a certain anti-social consciousness.

This story is adapted from Batman (DC Comics) storyboards.


====

Harvey Dent was an average but very diligent district attorney in Gotham City. He had drawn the ire of the mafia who he pursued with great care in court. Harvey had written editorials in the Gotham Gazette about the value of using media to discuss the ethics dangers of playing with organized crime.

During a court trial of an infamous mafia hitman, Harvey was disfigured when the hitman splashed corrosive acid on his face. The hitman was given the death penalty, and Harvey escaped from the hospital after his semi-treatment for his half-charred face was carried out. No one saw Harvey again.

Two months later detective Jim Gordon was investigating the murder of Mark Zuckerberg, founder of the popular Gotham social networking website Facebook. Zuckerberg was burned alive in his apartment which was broken into on a stormy Friday night. There were no suspects in the case, but the killer left a note which read, "Facebook makes people addicted to laissez-faire networking, which is dangerous in our age of mercantilism-gauged politics. Zuckerberg was profiting from businesses advertising on Facebook, while Facebook was becoming the ultimate symbol of tongue-in-cheek capitalism!"

Three months later a stranger surfaced in the media. He called himself the Penguin and he wore a mask made out of the skin of a dead human corpse and he carried a chainsaw. Penguin told the press, "I thought about calling myself Leatherface (incidentally, the mask I made was of a dead corpse before he was cremated), but I opted for Penguin, because my chainsaw represents my concern for eco-terrorism." Jim Gordon didn't know what to make of this new pseudo-political radical and secretly wondered if he was involved in Mark Zuckerberg's murder.

One night, while Gordon was studying Penguin's activities in his office, a masked man entered in through Gordon's office window. The stranger said, "My name is Batman. I'm a true vigilante. I used to be Harvey Dent, Gotham's district attorney, but I've changed my life. Only you know this, and I need you to keep this secret and help me serve Gotham in the shadows." Gordon was surprisingly pleased and asked Batman for help with Penguin. He told Harvey/Batman that he believed Penguin was somehow more dangerous than he let on and that he may have been involved in the conspicuous murder of Internet socialite Mark Zuckerberg. Batman told Gordon he would begin investigating.

Penguin had a huge profile page on Facebook now that he had become something of an eco-activism 'celebrity.' On his profile page there was a giant sarcastic caricature of the CEO of Gotham's primary power plant company. Penguin had even become popular with college students studying environmental science.

Two months later, the CEO of Gotham's primary power plant company was found murdered. He had been punctured in the stomach with what was probably a large jagged knife and bled to death while tied up in a chair in his mansion. There were no suspects in the crime but once again Jim Gordon suspected Penguin may have been involved. Gordon contacted Batman (through a secret email alias Batman provided) and asked him to investigate.

Batman broke into Penguin's lavish Gotham City apartment and tied him up in a chair. He said to Penguin, "I used to be a Gotham City lawyer, but now I'm a vigilante, and I investigate weirdoes who claim to be legitimate servants of the law and those who secretly operate outside the law. I think your Leatherface get-up is a mask Penguin for your secret dark side. I think you killed that power plant CEO and Mark Zuckerberg. I want you to confess before I start tickling you to annoy you. I'll tape record you laughing and send it to the Gotham press." Penguin was enraged and replied, "That's right, Batman! I killed that worthless power plant scoundrel and Zuckerberg --- two parasites in Gotham City who were using post-Industrialization niceties to forward their own agendas for capital profiteerism. Why are you punishing me? I am simply a messenger of God!"

Penguin was found tied up and left on the footsteps of the GCPD. Next to him was a tape recording of the confessions of the two murders he committed under his maniacal alter-ego face Leatherface. Everyone was relieved the crimes were solved but shocked that Penguin was responsible as a psychotic rogue vigilante.

Gordon was drinking coffee and reviewing the conviction record of Penguin when Batman entered his office again through the window. "Glad I could help. Penguin/Leatherface was a real American psycho, and he held a terrible grudge against industrialization. I don't think I'll ever look at Facebook the same way again!" Gordon replied with a giggle, "Thanks, Batman. Fortunately, we had a vigilante like you who operated on the more sane side of the law...whatever that means! Thank God for Facebook is the sort of gibberish they'll write in the press. I'll keep your involvement secret."

====